Environment committee  They have no enforcement. Enforcement is with the government, and then within the government you only have the steering function of the PMO and the chairing of the federal minister of this group of state secretaries.

Environment committee  Yes, I could only agree with this. I think we did a job here that helps Germany. It provides prosperity and wealth options for German society, and that is what really sells. When we started this in 2001, politicians from all parties said they didn't like the idea of quantified ta

Environment committee  It's not only about a watchdog; it's about presenting choice and coaching people into a new role.

Environment committee  We have as close as could be, the German parliamentary advisory group on sustainable development. They have an ombudsman or commissioner role in parliament. They are a watchdog of government and they are agenda-setting within parliament. We do not have a commissioner.

Environment committee  I had some part in the decision that was then well known as the German Energiewende, or energy transition. From that time, in 2011, I have to say that of course we have to use the command and control system, the role of the state, and the role of audiences. People then ask, “What

Environment committee  Germany has 16 provinces, bigger ones and smaller ones. We have a couple of hundred local communities. What we see now is that we have established government links from the federal level to the cities and to the provinces. What we have not yet achieved is bringing in the building

Environment committee  I agree that the targets and timetables are kind of the turning point in policy-making when it comes to sustainable development. We are coming from a world where politics was just programming and measures, means and measures, and now the targeted timetable approach allows us to g

Environment committee  I would be very interested to hear about an example where we could work with fines and regulations in the way you've expressed. It's not what we are doing in Germany, but I can say that maybe what you've just sketched out is an alternative. We're doing it by a kind of public wat

Environment committee  Mark, I have to say that this is a wonderful question you pose. Very bluntly, you will not regulate yourself into sustainable development. Sustainable development is more than just regulation. We have these legal impact assessments in place, but it would be more important, I thin

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Ms. Chair. Thanks for the nice introduction of Germany so far. What I can offer you is a practitioner's view of what we are doing here in Germany. I've been in the position of general secretary for the German Council for Sustainable Development since 2001,